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Business travel

I got home last night from 4 days in Düsseldorf. We hit the ground running with the new company and after 1 day of getting set up, we were on the road and travelling again away from the familiarity of my own bed.

I always thought it would be so cool to travel on business. Even though Felicity sometimes said she was too busy to see the sights, it sounded awesome anyway that you could go to France or Germany or even Japan and have somebody else foot the bill… but now I see that it isn’t actually all that cool after all.

Don’t get me wrong: it wasn’t a bad experience in terms of work or meeting colleagues. Rather, it wasn’t anything like travelling for fun. The transportation and accommodations are out of your control and are only made to facilitate the business to be conducted: you drive straight to the company, work, and go to your place to sleep. Meals were eaten at local hang-outs, which can be a mixed blessing. It was essentially a normal work week but in a different office, where I slept in a bed that wasn’t mine.

It’d probably be a little different to have business in a really cool city or country but unless you have a weekend in there somewhere, it’s probably going to always be strictly business. Again, it was a great experience from a work perspective – we got a lot done, learned many things, and made great contacts – but it does make me realise that a job involving travel probably wouldn’t be something to dream about.

Instead, it reinforces my current choice: live somewhere you enjoy, where you can work to afford travelling to the cool places you want to go to on your own terms!